William R. King

William Rufus DeVane King (7 April 1786-18 April 1853) was Vice President of the United States from 4 March to 18 April 1853, succeeding Millard Fillmore and preceding John C. Breckinridge. He previously served as a member of the US House of Representatives (DR-NC 5) from 4 March 1811 to 4 November 1816 (succeeding Thomas Kenan and preceding Charles Hooks and as a US Senator from Alabama (D) from 14 December 1819 to 15 April 1844 (preceding Dixon Hall Lewis) and from 1 July 1848 to 20 December 1852 (succeeding Arthur P. Bagby and preceding Benjamin Fitzpatrick).

Biography
William Rufus DeVane King was born in Sampson County, North Carolina in 1786, and he became a lawyer in 1806. He served in the North Carolina House of Commons from 1807 to 1809, and he served as a member of the US House of Representatives from 1811 to 1816. In 1818, he moved to a tract of land between Selma and Cahaba in the Alabama Territory, and, in 1819, he became one of Alabama's inaugural US Senators, serving from 1819 to 1844 and from 1848 to 1852. His family was one of the largest slaveholding families in the state, and he was a supporter of Andrew Jackson. However, he was a moderate on the issues of sectionalism, slavery, and westward expansion, and he helped to draft the Compromise of 1850. From 1844 to 1846, he served as ambassador to France, and he returned to the Senate after his return to the USA. In 1853, he was elected Franklin Pierce's Vice President, but, as he was in ill health, he had to take the oath of office in Havana, Cuba, the only US executive official to take the oath of office on foreign soil. He died of tuberculosis in Selma after 45 days in office.